What Should Medical Cannabis Patients Choose: Concentrates or Flower?

Medical marijuana patients
can choose the form of cannabis they would like to use. There are a
few options that suit different individual needs. While infused
edibles are universal, the two other forms, flowers and concentrates,
have their own pros and cons.

Medical weed patients have
to be careful both when choosing the way of consumption and assessing
the quality of the product. Marijuana edibles have proven to be the
most delicious kind of medicine. They suit everybody. However,
depending on the ailment that you treat with the cannabinoid-based
products, edibles may or may not be the best choice. For example, if
you require an instant relief, cookies and cakes are the last things
you should resort to. Their effects come in about half an hour or
even later.

What You Should Know Before Buying Edibles

If you are lucky enough to live in a state where selling and buying marijuana is already legalized, you may face a great variety of edibles that may all look quite tempting to try. But like any kind of products, marijuana edibles are not all identical.

Here come the flowers and
concentrates, which hit you immediately. However, when we use
cannabis for the first time, it is not clear how we can medicate
ourselves and what exactly we need. If you have problems choosing
between the plant's flowers and concentrates, we are ready to provide
you with the essential information about both products.

Why Do Weed Edibles Cause Stronger Effects Than Flowers?

Though weed-infused edibles contain smaller amounts of THC, they usually hit you stronger than pot flowers. Why does eating cannabis affect you differently than smoking it? Interestingly, the reason lies in the way our body deals with the cannabis product you consume. In a nutshell, in order to be broken down, weed-infused edibles have to go through the liver, which makes the influence of cannabis compounds stronger.

Flower

First, let us look at the
components of a flower that can heal us. Marijuana buds are covered
with resin glands, also known as trichomes, that contain various
cannabinoids. These chemicals are exactly what we are looking for.
Two main types of cannabinoids are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and
cannabidiol (CBD). In addition, the buds contain many other compounds
that can boost their medical value when combined with cannabinoids. A
bright example are terpenes—molecules
that give weed its aroma.

So,
to medicate ourselves, we need to roll the flowers into joints and
smoke them. What is good about this way of treatment is that the buds
are unprocessed, unlike concentrates. The trichomes in the dried
flowers are intact, meaning that you get not only useful cannabinoids
but terpenes as well.

However,
there are several downsides of opting for dried marijuana. First of
all, not all of us like smoking. While anyone would be ready to
acquire this bad habit to get rid of a serious ailment, we do not
have to force ourselves if we have an alternative. Besides, while
cannabinoids may be useful for our bodies, the smoke it not
completely harmless. Of course, you can also buy a vaporizer, which
is definitely more beneficial to your health.

4 Reasons Vaporizing Is Better Than Smoking

Vaporizers are usually more expensive than bongs or pipes, but there are a lot of reasons why many people decide to switch.

Another
disadvantage of medicating with cannabis flowers is the dosage. While
inhaling the medicine can bring you an almost instant relief, the
dose is lower than when concentrates are used. While in most cases,
flowers are enough, some serious conditions like cancer need
something stronger.

All
in all, cannabis buds are a common and standard choice for both
recreational and medical marijuana users. They are easy to come by,
relatively cheap, contain all the useful compounds, and, in addition,
can be cultivated at home. They are not without some flaws but are
time-proved.

Concentrates

Concentrates come from
processed cannabis flowers. The resin is extracted from scrap
cannabis material with the help of some type of solvent. As we have
mentioned above, many of them can lack other useful compounds of the
plant aside from cannabinoids.

When choosing a quality
concentrate, we instantly face their biggest disadvantage—price.
If the product is good, it is expensive. However, they are very
potent, so you require less product than you would think. You will be
surprised how many buds the manufacturers need to process to get such
concentrated stuff. The top choice of patients is full extract
medical cannabis oil. It is successfully used for the treatment of
such serious conditions as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and cancer.

However,
concentrates are not perfect as well. Sometimes, this product can
contain a large percentage of impurities. Often, patients have
compromised immune systems that are not ready to fight off such
aggressive toxins as pesticides. In addition, it is not easy to find
a decent producer of the organic remedy.

Moreover,
there are many concentrates that are not considered full-spectrum,
meaning that the producers did not process the whole plant. In this
case, you are losing some beneficial compounds.

How to Avoid Bad Cannabis Concentrates

We pay a lot of attention to the topic of good dabs. But what do we know about bad marijuana concentrates and what makes a dab bad?

As the cannabis industry has not fully developed yet, not all states have mandatory systems of consumer safety requirements. It is crucial to be able to choose the goods that are completely safe for us, especially for those people who use marijuana for medical purposes.

An Israeli company Kanabo Research wants to turn vaporizers from mostly recreational gadgets to medical devices. The company works on releasing its first medical vaporizer called VapePod. Kanabo is also developing a series of medical cannabis formulations for vaporizers.

​Choosing the correct dosage of marijuana is one of the most burning issues of most cannabis patients and enthusiasts. It is almost impossible to measure the amount of THC and CBD in all the oils and dried cannabis flowers. However, Americans and Australians can now try a more precise treatment: hemp CBD oil. Here are a few tips on how to get the right dosage of CBD.